Dear  – – – –

      I have before me on my desk quite an accumulation of very dear letters from all parts of the globe, and among them yours.  These should be answered, and each one of which I would love to answer directly, but that seems at present a pretty big job.  I have, too, what to me is a lovely little story, so fraught with genuine Christian Science, that I find I just automatically want to put it in every letter I have written since I first heard it. 
      It is hard for me not to do that, and so the idea came to me; why not write this little story out, and send it as a thank you, and as an answer and appreciation of your kind letter?
      In that way I will free my desk of its accumulation of unanswered letters and my conscience of its pricking, and bring to you what perhaps you may have heard long ago.  Even so, it will help you to hear it again, coming from a deep lover of the power and spirit of this story, which is of course a true one, although stated in my own language.
      My wish and hope is that at this time, which has long served as a special season for thanksgiving, when the heart goes out to the giver of all good for the harvest He has vouchsafed to one and all, both spiritual and material so-called, that it will be truly a season of great gratitude to you for the advancing steps you are taking in Christian Science.
      I know this little story will help you to take them faster, as you faithfully abide by its sincere and natural truth; lost in the “Eminence of Mind”.

All good is already yours,

Signed H. W. E.  (Herbert W. Eustace)

 

THIS IS THE LITTLE STORY I LOVE.

      A poor suffering fellow, living in a large Eastern city, who had sought, like the Biblical character, who “had suffered many things of many physicians (this time many C.S. Practitioners), and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, finally becoming wholly discouraged, one day met a friend, and said to him:  “Cannot you recommend some Christian Scientist to me, who can help me in some way to get out of this awful mess I am in?  I am nothing of a Scientist, although I have studied and worked hard myself, but apparently to little avail.”  His friend said, “Yes, I think I can”, and took his card out of his pocket and wrote the name and address of a lady and gave it to him.
      As a last desperate hope he took himself to the address given, rang the bell, and a colored maid came to the door.  He went inside and immediately said, “I am looking for a lady by the name of so and so.”  The one he was speaking to quietly said, “That is my name.” He was taken aback that his friend had not mentioned to whom he was recommending him.  He took the chair offered him and sat down.  Then he began his tale of woe, and it was a long one.
      When he made his first pause, his listener quietly said, “T’aint so, T’aint so”, and on he went and each time he paused she would again softly say, “T’aint so, T’aint so”, but on he would go.
      Of course, when he finished his recital, “T’aint so”, had won the day, and the man was entirely healed.  Now what had this dear woman done?  Like Mrs. Eddy, when looking into the face of a storm beheld the face of God there and the storm cloud vanished.  So this dear woman looking into the face of Divine Love, couldn’t find a single thing there of the sorry story being rehearsed to her, and so simply said, “T’aint so, T’aint so”, and what she said was so.
      Is not this just what Mrs. Eddy means when she says, “When thought is lost in the eminence of Mind the healing takes place”? in the “eminence of Mind” is there the slightest element of evil? Perfection is all that abides in the “eminence”, and this dear woman proved it.
      Must we not, one and all, go and do likewise?  Are not you the living witness that there is no such thing as evil, in the slightest, anyway in all creation?  Have you not the assurance within yourself that you are, that, I consciously am?  Could you have this assurance of being if there were one iota of destructive element in Cause?  Of course you could not, for you would not be, for there could be no creation.  Then you are the living witness that perfection is and is All that is.
      Is it not on this one basis alone that all healing, meaning thereby, whereas I was sick and I am well, is accomplished, whether of so-called material medicine, or whatnot, as well as Christian Science?  If perfection were not the eternal fact, everpresent no healing of any kind could take place.  Remember this, as I know you ever do.  Be ready in season and out of season, with your “T’aint so”, to every form of evil.  No matter how slight the divergence from infinite good may seem to be.  “T’aint so”, and it will bless you abundantly when your heart is full and you really mean it.

 

HISTORY of “A LITTLE STORY I LOVE”: 

      “Dr. Merriman was the first of the organized teachers to embrace the One Volume Clear Correct Teaching after having met Herbert W. Eustace.  He said he had never met a man with a more spiritual presence than HWE. 

      The second of the organized teachers to embrace the C.C.T. was Lulu Knight of Chicago, the first woman, and a black.  I never met her but Dr. Merriman said she spoke the simplest of truths with such conviction that she became an outstanding metaphysician.  After moving from NYC to Chicago, after giving up his medical practice in N.Y.C. sometime during the 1920’s he and his wife became acquainted with her.  Lulu Knight is the woman Kimmis Hendrick, a C.S.M. correspondent, wrote about after being healed by her.  Kimmis wrote a one or two pager titled “This Little Story I Love” and signed his name to it.  Lulu Knight is the woman who kept saying “Taint so; taint so,” to every negative presented to her, and according to Kimmis H, “Taint so” carried the day.  He was healed when he left her office.  Kimmis was a top journalist for the Monitor for many years and a friend of Dr. M.  When he knocked on her door in Chicago he thought it was a maid or secretary who greeted him; but it was Mrs. Knight.  He wrote the story and he, Dr. M. and HWE circulated it among friends.  However, when she read the account, she got upset because she felt that by declaring “Taint so!” to the error, it made it appear as if she were an uneducated woman.  Of course, she wasn’t.”

(quote Paul W. Ambuul)

 

      Herbert W. Eustace freely circulated the above story throughout his life.  In his last year of life, there is a note where he stated he wanted to contact Mrs. Knight, so Mr. Eustace obviously thought very highly of her.  Mrs. Knight came from the Black Chicago Christian Science church, the 8th Church of Christ, Scientist of Chicago, South Park.  “The 8th Church was jam packed in 1948.  Boy, did those people sing out!”

(quote Paul W. Ambuul)  ​

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